ROSEMARY ABBOTT | National
RELATABILITY REBOOT
The Prime Minister’s PR team has wrapped up what one insider described as a “desperate but creative” brainstorming session today.
With a string of dire polling results and Christopher Luxon’s ongoing struggle to come across as relatable to everyday Kiwis, the National Party’s brains trust has quietly floated the idea of replacing him with an AI-generated version for social media videos.
“All the videos we do of him just seem cringey and he doesn’t actually come across as genuine or human. I mean he’s more likely to get mistaken for a robot than an actual robot!” said one of his social media team, who has had the impossible task of making him seem human.
The plan involves creating deepfake-style AI videos that would allow “Virtual Luxon” to smile naturally, appear relaxed, and even laugh at a normal human volume.
“Imagine a Luxon who can say something as simple as ‘how good’s the weather today, eh?’ without it sounding like he’s reading from carefully crafted key messages,” said another staffer. “That’s the dream.”
Early prototypes of “Virtual Luxon” have tested well with the PR team.
“One version we trialled had him shaking hands on the street and saying, ‘Hi, I’m Christopher, nice to meet you. How are you today?’ We all cried tears of joy. It was the most human thing we’d ever seen him do,” admitted a campaign strategist.
Not everyone was convinced. One senior PR aide mused: “If we make him too normal, voters might realize he’s not actually real. But at this stage a fake AI Luxon is genuinely better and more human than the real thing.”
More to come.
